Publications of International Conferences on Permafrost

11th International Conference on Permafrost20 - 24 June 2016

The 11th International Conference on Permafrost (ICOP 2016) was held from June 20-24, 2016 in Potsdam, Germany with nearly 740 participants from 36 countries and organized by the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Poöar and Marine Research and Prof. Hans-Wolfgang Hubberten as conference chair.

The local organizing committee decided that an extended abstract book would be published instead of a conference proceedings volume. Each person who wished to give either an oral or a poster presentation submitted an abstract 1 to 3 pages long and these were compiled in a book (Günther and Morgenstern 2016) which can be downloaded from the conference website:http://icop2016.org.

8th International Conference on Permafrost21-25 July 2003

The 8th International Conference on Permafrost met in Zürich, Switzerland, July 21-25, 2003. Approximately 300 representatives from 24 countries participated. A total of 230 papers were published and an additional 97 extended abstracts were published and available for poster presentations. The conference cochairs were Professors Sarah Springman, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ) and Charles Harris, University of Cardiff, UK. Professor Wilfried Haeberli, University of Zurich, was the host organizer and Vice President of the International Permafrost Association.

7th International Conference on Permafrost23-27 June 1998

The Seventh International Conference on Permafrost was held in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, 23-27 June 1998. The Chair of the Organizing Committee was Don Hayley of EBA Engineering Consultants Ltd. and the Chair of the Technical Program Committee was Antoni Lewkowicz of the University of Ottawa. The Conference was scheduled to coincide with the summer solstice when daylight is continuous. Yellowknife, situated in the discontinuous permafrost zone, is illustrative of a city that has evolved in a periglacial environment. Approximately 275 participants, including accompanying persons and 25 students, representing 25 countries participated.

6th International Conference on Permafrost5-9 July 1993

The Sixth International Conference on Permafrost was held in Beijing, China between July 5-9, 1993 under the auspices of the Chinese Society of Glaciology and Geocryology (CSGG). It was chaired by Cheng Guodong, Lanzhou Institute of Glaciology and Geocryology. The venue was the Beijing International Convention Center where 275 registrants from 21 countries participated in the program. The major technical activities of the Conference consisted of three special sessions, an IPA data workshop, 14 paper sessions, two poster sessions and field excursions.

5th International Conference on Permafrost2-5 August 1988

The first international conference on permafrost to be held subsequent to the founding of the International Permafrost Association (IPA) was in Norway in 1988. This, the fifth conference to be held since 1963, was organized by the Norwegian Committee on Permafrost and chaired by Kaare Flaate of the Norwegian Road Research Laboratory. The venue was the Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTH) in Trondheim, Norway. It was attended by 305 registrants from 19 countries.

4th International Conference on Permafrost18-22 July 1983

Organized by the University of Alaska and the National Academy of Sciences, the Fourth International Conference on Permafrost was held at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA, between July 17-22, 1983. The Organizing Committee was chaired by Troy L. Péwé. No fewer than 64 Federal, State, Industry and Private sponsors contributed to the support of the Conference.The Conference attracted some 851 registrants. Of those, 595 were from the USA, 122 from Canada and 111 from 22 other countries. It was during the Fourth International Conference on Permafrost that the International Permafrost Association (IPA) was formed.

3rd International Conference on Permafrost10-13 July 1978

The Third International Conference on Permafrost, which was held in the Edmonton Plaza Hotel, Edmonton, Canada, July 10-13, 1978, was sponsored by the National Research Council of Canada. Roger J. E. Brown served as Chairman of the Organizing Committee. The Proceedings list 452 registrants, and Chinese scientists attended for the first time. The Conference consisted of special plenary sessions, technical papers sessions and poster sessions. The special plenary sessions were devoted to reviewing eight different topics.

2nd International Conference on Permafrost13-28 July 1973

At the conclusion of the First Conference in 1963, it was resolved to organize “a second conference with the objective of furthering interdisciplinary exchange of information in the field.” Circumstances were such that this objective was not met until 10 years later. The Conference was held at the House of Political Education, Yaroslavskiy Str., Yakutsk between Monday, July 12 and Friday, July 20, 1973. During the stay in Yakutsk, attendees had opportunities for several short field trips including visits to a site where prefabricated, six-story, apartment buildings were being constructed on permafrost; the 117 m deep “well” or Shergin shaft that had been dug into permafrost 100 years earlier, and used for the first scientific study of permafrost”; and, most importantly the Permafrost Institute which has a life-size statute of a mammoth that greets you before you enter the building.

1st International Conference on Permafrost11-15 November 1963

Some 20 years after Siemon Muller published in English the word ‘permafrost’, the Building Research Advisory Board of the National Academy of Sciences – National Research Council of the United States provided the opportunity to “ … bring together experts from many countries and disciplines to discuss various aspects of permafrost.” Held at Purdue University under the auspices of its School of Civil Engineering, November 11-15, 1963, the Conference registered some 285 “engineers, researchers, manufacturers, and builders from around the world, …” This first international permafrost conference, had papers presented by scientists and engineers from Argentina, Canada, Germany, Japan, Norway, Poland, Sweden, the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. This was the first post-World War major contact with a group of senior Russian frozen ground researchers